Sunday, April 28, 2013

April 29- May 3

What a great weekend trip we had! The kids gave the Chick Corea concert rave reviews and our workshops at Sonoma State with Dr. Collinsworth and Dr. Leibinger were encouraging and helpful. Our weekend wouldn't have been possible without the help of 10 outstanding chaperones- thanks so much to Mr Carrillo, Mr Summers, Mr & Mrs Hubbard, Mrs Lipps, Mrs Archambault, Mrs Yetkinler, Mrs Raimondi, Mrs Liebscher and Mrs Thompson. A music program relies not only on committed students, but supportive parents as well. Please consider joining us in the future... like...

CMEA festival is this weekend for Concert Band, Wind Ensemble and Orchestra!
Band students- your call time is 5:00 on Friday afternoon. We'll meet in our formal attire at the band room, bus to Gilroy High where we'll perform and then we'll bus back to Pioneer. We should be back to school by about 10:00 Friday night. I do need several parents who can ride along with us on the bus. This is a great way to help out and support our students with a minimal time investment. If you'd like to join us, please let me know.
Orchestra students- call time is 9:30 on Saturday morning at Pioneer. We'll meet dressed in our performing attire at Pioneer, bus to Independence where we'll perform, then back to Pioneer at about 12:30. There is not enough room in the bus for every orchestra student. We need parent drivers! If you can drive your child, have room for some instruments (like a bass or cello or two), please let me know! We need about 10 students to ride in private cars while the rest are on the bus. If you've filled out a Volunteer Driver Form with the school, you can drive other students as well. Please let me know ASAP as we are going to rely on many parents to make this day a success!

Remember that all students need to do a Live Review this semester. I've updated my Live Music Page with information about upcoming performances- so please plan accordingly!

Finale Concerts are May 22 & 23. Beginning Band, Concert Band and Jazz Band will perform on Wednesday the 22 while Wind Ensemble, String Orchestra and Symphony Orchestra will perform on Thursday May 23. I am sorry about the conflict that some families have with a Castillero concert, but we are unable to reschedule at this time. Both concerts are at 7:00 in the PAC and are free admission. Come and hear the great work that the students have done this year!

Sunday, April 21, 2013

April 22-26

Spring Trip this weekend! For updated info including suggested packing list- check out the Tour 2013 page! Please note, all chaperones are asked to attend a brief orientation meeting Wednesday night during the parent meetings in my room at 8:00. Parents are encouraged to drive their students to school on Friday morning so that student's cars are NOT left in the parking lot over night.

Auditions should now be complete. If you did not audition last week during the audition window, please plan to play for me Monday or Tuesday after school. Are you a saxophone player? Thanks to an abundance of sax players- I need volunteers to try another section. If you would like to learn trombone, baritone, tuba or maybe even percussion- let me know as soon as possible. I will be able to check you out a school instrument for you to work on over the summer. Remember that the more instruments you play, the more opportunities you have in the future (and more scholarship possibilities, too). For those students who may be waiting on admission to PHS, please audition for me anyway. I'm working with our administration and the school district to get as many music students into our program as possible.

CMEA Band & Orchestra is coming up next weekend. Concert Band & Wind Ensemble will go to Gilroy Friday night and the Orchestra will be at Independence HS Saturday morning. All the details are on the CMEA Festival Post.

Our end of year concerts are scheduled for May 22-23 at 7:00 in the PAC. Wednesday will feature Beginning Band, Concert Band and Jazz Band. Thursday will feature Wind Ensemble, String Orchestra and Symphony. I'm aware of the Castillero concerts the 23 and 24 and am trying to figure out a way to work around those. Until you hear otherwise, our concerts will proceed as scheduled.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

April 15-19

Audition week! Please make sure you've signed up for your audition time. If you haven't signed up for your classes for next year, or if you didn't sign up for band or orchestra, but you plan to continue- please make sure you let me know!

Have you checked out the bell schedule for the next few weeks? We'll be on a block schedule with different tests and things happening at various times- you need to know what's going on. Check out the Pioneer website, or get the schedules here.

Next weekend is our Spring trip! All participants will get a permission slip and final balance statement this week. All forms must be returned to travel!

CMEA festival for Concert Band, Wind Ensemble and Orchestra is coming up May 3 & 4. Please get all the info here.

Our end of year concerts are scheduled for May 22 and 23 at 7:00 in the PAC. Beginning Band, Concert Band & Jazz Band will perform on Wednesday the 22 while Wind Ensemble, String Orchestra & Symphony will perform on Thursday the 23. Please note the changes to which groups are going which night.

Band & Orchestra CMEA

Band CMEA- Wind Ensemble & Concert Band-
Friday May 3, 5:00- 10:30 pm @ Gilroy HS
We will meet at the band room at 5, dressed in our performing attire and take school buses down to Gilroy. Concert Band performs at 6:45 and Wind Ensemble performs at 8:35. Students will warm up, perform, then have a clinic or sight reading performance then a group photo. Once Wind Ensemble's photo is done, we'll bus back to Pioneer. We will need a few parents to chaperone and watch the performances, if you are interested, please let me know.

Orchestra CMEA
Saturday May 4 9:30 am- 12:30 pm @ Independence HS
We will meet at Pioneer at 9:30 am dressed in our performing attire and take the bus to Independence HS. We'll warm-up together, perform at 11:00, do our sight reading session, then take our group photo and head back to Pioneer. Students who need to meet us at Independence will need to turn in a note to me in advance.